


A Just Man

by redcandle17



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 19:45:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9622802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redcandle17/pseuds/redcandle17
Summary: Young Renly Baratheon's view of his brother Stannis, and of the world, is shaken after the smuggler Davos Seaworth arrives at Storm's End.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Plaid_Slytherin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Plaid_Slytherin/gifts).



> _There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man._ \- AGoT

Renly Baratheon was only a boy of five, but he knew that when someone gave you something or helped you, you were supposed to say thank you. There hadn’t been any food to eat in the whole of Storm’s End for days and days until the smuggler brought onions and salt fish. Renly was sure Stannis thanked him because, as Stannis often told him, it was very important that a man and a lord do what was right and proper. 

So Renly was confused by the grave words his brother was speaking and he was worried by the incredulous looks on the faces of the men and their muttering. He tugged on Maester Cressen’s robes to get his attention. 

“What’s happening?” he whispered loudly. 

“Your brother is proving himself a man unlike any other,” the maester replied. His voice sounded funny. 

Maester Cressen took Renly’s hand and began leading him away. Renly twisted around to keep watching. He saw Stannis raise the cleaver and saw the blood splatter as he brought it down on the smuggler’s hand. He heard the smuggler scream, but his scream quickly stopped while Renly’s continued. 

“Shush, child.” Maester Cressen picked him up like he was a baby and carried him away.

Renly stopped screaming, but he couldn’t contain his sobs. They’d been starving and the smuggler had brought them food. He was good. He was a hero. He couldn’t understand why Stannis had hurt him. 

Maester Cressen tried to explain that Stannis had judged the smuggler for his crimes against the crown and carried out the sentence, but he would also reward him for his service to House Baratheon. That made no sense to Renly. It was silly and stupid. But Stannis wasn’t silly and stupid. He didn’t know what to think.

“Your brother is a just man,” Maester Cressen told him, as he tucked him into bed. “The Father Above surely loves him.” 

The maester sat with him a while, humming an old song. He must have thought Renly was asleep when he rose to leave and murmured quietly, “May the Mother Above leaven his justice with mercy.” 

Renly was still lying awake, unable to sleep, when his brother entered his bedchamber. He pretended to be asleep at first, but Stannis just stood there beside his bed. Renly didn’t know why Stannis would watch him sleep. He pretended to wake. “Stannis?”

“The maester told me you were upset.”

“Why’d you hurt that man? He brought us food and you cut off his hand!”

“I didn’t take his hand, I only shortened his fingers.”

“But why?!”

“He was a smuggler, and had been for many years. He cheated the crown out of its lawful taxes.”

“But he helped us!”

“And for that I knighted him and I will give him lands and a grander ship. A good deed does not erase past crimes, however. Good deeds are to be rewarded, but crimes must be punished. Do you understand, Renly?”

“No.”

There was a long silence and then Stannis gruffly said, “You’ll understand when you are older.”

Renly didn’t think he’d ever understand, not even if he lived to be as old as Maester Cressen. When he finally slept, he dreamed that Stannis learned of all the tarts he’d stolen from the kitchen and sentenced him to lose his hand as befit a thief. He woke before the cleaver descended and he soon forgot the dream. 

He could not forget the incident, however. He loved his older brother, but he would never regard him the same again.


End file.
